Podcast: Asael Abelman on the History of "Hatikvah"

To mark the 76th anniversary of Israel’s founding, the historian looks at the national anthem’s story, mysteries, and paradoxes.

The flag of Israel is raised by United Nations guards to mark the year-old state’s admission as the 59th member of the world body, watched by Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett (with mustache) and Abba Eban, Israeli delegate to the U.N., both shown on right next to the flag. As the flag was raised, Sharett led the singing of the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah.” Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive.

The flag of Israel is raised by United Nations guards to mark the year-old state’s admission as the 59th member of the world body, watched by Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett (with mustache) and Abba Eban, Israeli delegate to the U.N., both shown on right next to the flag. As the flag was raised, Sharett led the singing of the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah.” Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive.
Observation
Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic and Asael Abelman
May 17 2024
About the authors

A weekly podcast, produced in partnership with the Tikvah Fund, offering up the best thinking on Jewish thought and culture.

Asael Abelman teaches in the History Department at Herzog College and is a lecturer in Jewish history at Shalem College. He is the author of a comprehensive history of the Jewish people, Toldot Ha-Yehudim, which was published by Dvir in Hebrew in 2019.

Podcast: Asael Abelman

 

Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” has a long and poignant history that traces back to a poem originally written by Naftali Herz Imber called “Tikvateinu.” This week, to mark the 76th anniversary of Israel’s founding, the historian and author Asael Abelman joins Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver to investigate that history. Together, they look at the biblical sources and national aspirations of the poem, examine some of the contemporary discussion surrounding it, and take stock of some of its mysteries and paradoxes. Foremost among those paradoxes is the fact that the state of Israel’s anthem is a song of longing for the day that there will be such a thing as a state of Israel.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

More about: Hatikvah, Israel & Zionism, Music

 
 
Popular
in Mosaic